Self Defence For Women
Often when a self defence course is run there is limited time to get the message across. As with all martial arts there is, of course, a huge amount to cover but with a self defence course we are expecting to be able to defend ourselves by the end of it.
Likewise with Karate, kung fu or whatever, part of the deal is wanting to feel safer by being able to defend ourselves in times of danger. Over a short period of time it is unrealistic to expect sufficient skills to be covered for someone to be able to defend themselves against a variety of attacks. However, it should be possible to improve the chances of being able to do so.
A good self defence course, or self defence section of a martial arts style, should cover the following;
Awareness and avoidance - being aware of potential danger is the easiest way to avoid it, providing someone with the skills to spot trouble is essential. Simple effective defence techniques - skills for standing and ground defence need to be included. These should be simple, gross motor skills rather than complex, fine motor skills. Power production - in theory it is good to keep the training arena safe but once learned the delivery of a technique must be ramped up so it can be thrown with power. Movement skills - effective movement skills are critical in both the delivery of techniques and to be able to fashion an exit from an attack. This is especially so for multiple attackers. Pressure testing - once learned skills should be applied under increasingly difficult situations approaching what a real fight would be like.
Often self defence courses are part of a work commitment and may be run across as little as a single afternoon every six or twelve months. The wrost thing, however, is to omit some kind of skill testing.
It is all very well to teach techniques which allow a person to escape from any number of nasty situations but if the training attacker is only employed in a perfunctory manner then there is no way of knowing if the technique will work in the real world. Although obvious, it is essential that acquired skills are tested to a level where it could fail. If you never test it properly you have no idea whether it will work in a 'live' situation!
This is critical, if your technique doesn't work for you under 'safe' pressure it needs to be replaced by one that does. Even the seemingly easiest to learn technique can fall apart when it is tried under the pressure of someone 'really' attacking you. In this case it should be dropped no matter how much you like it, or at least relegated to certain instances only, ie. those where you can get it to work. It is better to spend time developing techniques that work than to waste time practising a favourite skill.
If your self defence is important enough to train for it is important enough to train for properly and effectively!
About the Author
If you want more information about the issues covered here, there are two excellent posts below.
These are on the fantaastic Epic Martial Arts Blog and can be found by clicking these either of these links
http://epicmartialartsblog.com/self-defence-for-women-rape-defence
http://epicmartialartsblog.com/adding-the-live-to-rape-defence
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